Author Archives: Han Q Duong

Challengers / The New Pornographers

NP_2932.jpg Just to show you I don’t hate change, I fuckin’ LOVE The New PornographersChallengers, and sometimes I get the feeling I’m the only one. For years now, absolutely nobody has done the hyperdense hyperactive pop monstrosity as well as the New Pornographers, and a first pass at Challengers is going to feel bizarrely calm.

Besides the immediacy of “Mutiny, I Promise You” and “All the Things That Go To Make Heaven and Earth,” most of the tracks are mid-tempo meditations with slow builds and modest climaxes, much more in tune with Carl Newman’s “Slow Wonder” than say, the cranked to 11 hookishness of Electric Version. The three Dan Bejar efforts are distinctively Destroyer, with loopy vocal reads of Bejar’s unique lyrics, with “Myriad Harbor” being a particular standout. The arrangements have a little more room to breathe, and both Kathryn Calder and Neko Case provide a sensuous lilt to their vocals. Case’s waltzy “Go Places” is positively stunning, and the instrumentation’s as bare as any New Pornographers track ever. This is probably the least Neko of any of their records, with Calder slowly growing into the role of lead vocalist. The crawling build of “Adventures in Solitude” is exquisite, and Calder’s subtle vocal turns are why.

If you’re waiting to be slammed in the face with overlapping vocals and soaring instrumentation you’ll finish the record with a frown on your face. I found the record to be a grower though, with seductive melodies that came at me sideways and backwards, insinuating themselves in my life just as insidiously as “Letter to an Occupant” did so many years ago. Are there faults? Sure. The album art is fucking awful, for one thing. Even still, no album has spent as much time in my head and my heart this year as Challengers, whatever that’s worth.

MP3: My Rights Versus Yours
MP3: Myriad Harbour
BUY: Amazon.com

Under the Blacklight / Rilo Kiley

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The transition from indie darling to major label players is never an easy one, and Rilo Kiley’s newest release Under the Blacklight shows a band struggle to diversify and increase its accessibility. Their last album, More Adventurous, was a terrific set of songs that read like their earlier release polished up with a bit of technical sheen. The band’s transformation for Under the Blacklight is greater, to the point where they seem almost unrecognizable.

Songs like “Silver Lining” and “Under the Blacklight” are classic Kiley, with melodies sweetly sung and lyrics beautifully strung. Country twangers “15” and “The Angels Hung Around” evoke Jenny Lewis’s gorgeous solo effort Rabbit Furcoat. The problems lie in their dalliances with disco, pop and funk with tracks like “The Moneymaker” and “Dreamworld.” Musically most of this stuff is danceable and fun, but feel unfinished and unsatisfying as the hooks repeat ad nauseum without any turns or surprises.

It’s a shame, because there is a lot to like on the record. The bands off-kilter efforts at world-beat in “Dejalo” and go-go psychedelia with “Smoke Detector” are surprisingly good. The out and out disco of “Breakin’ Up” has its own Bee-Gees appeal. But even those songs are betrayed by a lack of nuance or a conspicuously awful lyric.

Play Under the Blacklight in the background as you do your chores and it’s an appealing record. The beats are strong and the basslines groovy. It’s when you sit down for an in-depth read that it starts to feel a little empty compared to old Rilo Kiley records. The disappointment isn’t that it’s an awful, hateworthy album, but that the band seems capable of doing so much more.

Stream: Entire Album Stream
Video: Silver Lining
Buy: Amazon.com

Rogue Wave Asks for Your Help

Straight from the Rogue Wave website:

On September 30th 2006, San Francisco band Rogue Wave will host a benefit concert to raise money for their drummer Pat Spurgeon, who is in desperate need of a kidney transplant.

The benefit concert will feature performances by Rogue Wave, Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie,) Matthew Caws (Nada Surf,) Ryan Miller (Guster,) John Vanderslice, and other special guests. Daniel Handler (AKA Lemony Snickett) will MC the event.

Pat was born with one kidney and it failed. He had his first transplant in 1993, which served him well until now. After 13 years, it has started to deteriorate. He has been on dialysis since April and is hoping desperately to find a donor. Some of their friends have gotten tested to see if they are a match, but Pat has yet to hear good news. Provided he finds a donor, there will be an enormous amount of costs that both Pat and his donor will incur.

In a logical world, medical insurance would cover his donor’s and his expenses after the procedure, but it does not; so he and his family must carry the financial burden. The expenses can be huge. We are trying to raise money for costs like: donor’s travel, care, bills, lost work wages, etc., as well as Pat’s expenses, care, bills, etc. while he is in recovery.

If you cannot attend the show, we encourage you to donate whatever you can.

Thank you for your love and continued support,
Rogue Wave
(Zach, Pat, Gram, Evan)

9/30/06
The Independent
628 Divisadero St., San Francisco, CA 94117
Doors: 8:30pm; Show: 9:00pm
Tickets available now: click here

The website also has a direct paypal link for donations to Pat. Please spread the word if you can (all you other music bloggers, I look in your general direction).

Minus 5 Traxxx

Scott McCaughey may seem virtually unknown, but he must have the most famous friends around. After years of powerpop greatness with the Young Fresh Fellows, McCaughey’s been running the Minus 5 as a supergroup collective of sorts and their new record features the deepest, most famousest lineup yet.

Alongside the R.E.M. b-team of Peter Buck, Ken Stringfellow and Bill Rieflin you also get the other Posie, Jon Auer, the Decemberists’ Colin Meloy and Jon Moen, Sean Nelson of the Long Winters, John Wesley Harding, Kelly Hogan and a troika of Wilco in Tweedy/Kotchke/Stirratt.

I bring all this up only because Songs:Illinois has two tracks up, including “Cemetery Row” featuring (swoon Duffy, swoon) Colin Meloy on lead vocal.

The Minus 5, aka The Gun Album, is due February 7th from Yep Roc Records.

All Tomorrow’s Parties 2006 Rumors (?)

I found this floating around on a few websites tonight. I’m not actually ON the SubPop mailouts, so I can’t confirm the veracity of this, but here’s some (possibly) exciting news about next year’s ATP Festival:

All Tomorrow’s Parties May 2006, aka The United States of ATP to be curated by our own Mudhoney, The Shins and Sleater-Kinney! Weekend One takes place May 12th-14th, during which Mudhoney, along with the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs and a still-TBA special guest will perform and curate one day each, programming bands/DJ sets and a television channel. Weekend Two takes place May 19th-21st and that weekend Sleater-Kinney, The Shins and Ween will do the same deal. ATP is a remarkably good time, put together the way that every festival should be (and because of the on-site lodging there’s never that annoying trapped-rat feeling so pervasive at most music festivals) and if you can possibly make it, you really, really should. Tickets can be purchased directly through:

http://www.atpfestival.com

Ticket’s CAN’T be purchased now, and there’s no actual info on the ATP official site. The news doesn’t even mention a festival site, but I’m guessing this would be the newest iteration of ATP Pacific in Long Beach, or more likely, a site in the Pacific Northwest in either Seattle or Portland.

update: Looks like it’ll be in Camber Sands, UK.

Decemberists Dates

The Decemberists have announced their “Flight of the Mistle Thrushes” tour for late 2005! The rotating slate of opening acts includes Cass McCombs, Sons and Daughters, Built to Spill and Petra Haden and the Sellout Choir.

The full list of tour dates is here and a special non-Ticketmaster pre-sale has been arranged here!

Decemberists Benefit Auction

Remember how the Decemberists had all their gear stolen by meth addicts way back when? Well, even after recovering some of the instruments in meth house raids, they’re still short about 20 large.

TIME FOR A YARD SALE!

The band is running a benefit auction via ebay, so here’s your chance to help out as well as take home some seriously cool swag. That includes custom made badges from the “16 Military Wives” video, pictures from the Picaresque photo sessions, concert posters and even a tamarack from the “Eli the Barrow Boy” shoot. The biggest ticket item is a custom poster of “The Infanta” by Craig Thompson of “Blankets” and “Goodbye Chunky Rice” fame. $800!

Vertigo

Here’s a look at the new video for U2’s new single “Vertigo”. Watch it here now, and then many times over on VH1.

Bonus points for anyone who writes a compare/contrast essay between this video, the IPod commercial and the Hitchcock thriller.

The Mighty Mos

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Mos DefThe New Danger

Preview the new album here. The A-Side of the album features Mos Def’s band Black Jack Johnson, which includes Dr. Know from Bad Brains, Bernie Worrell from Parliament/Funkadelic, and Doug Wimibish and Will Calhoun from Living Colour, and their own attempt at a rock-rap hybrid. The other side of the vinyl is more traditional hip-hop including the single “Sex, Love and Money” and a reworking of “The Message” called “Close Edge.”

Sasquatch Music Festival

While it may lack the blazing starpower of Coachella, the lineup for the 3rd Annual Sasquatch Music Festival’s deep and full of quality acts. It’ll take place May 29th, 2004 at the gorgeous Gorge Amphitheater in George, WA and will run $49.95. Tickets available here.

The lineup is:

The Black Keys
Built To Spill
Cat Power
The Decemberists
Donavon Frankenreiter
Fruit Bats
Gary Jules
The Long Winters
Nellie McKay
Alexi Murdoch
The New Pornographers
The Postal Service
Preston School of Industry
The Roots
The Shins
Sleater-Kinney
Thievery Corporation